AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Harlan. I’m not fragile. Tell me.” There’s steel in her tone.
“There were a few complaints of excessive force and harassment, not only from citizens but from some of his fellow female officers. An investigation was in the process of being launched when he resigned from his position.”
“And he thought that if he moved here, he could become the sheriff with no one the wiser? Idiot.”
I don’t know how to bring up the next part, so I just go with it. “He was also looking into you.” I tighten my hold on her when she stiffens. “You’re safe. I promise. But he tracked you back to Tulsa and found out that you were dating a cop — who’s apparently not a cop anymore.” A righteous sense of justice fills me with telling her. All that power he abused to use against her, and he doesn’t have it anymore.
Her eyes widen and she whispers, “Sean’s not a cop anymore?”
I shake my head, and hating the minuscule space between us, I tug her back down next to me. “No. I don’t know the particulars, but sometime after you left him, he either quit or got fired. But he has a warrant out for his arrest right now for assault.”
“What?”
“When Cormac left, I did a little digging of my own. He got into an altercation with one of his neighbors. The police were called and the neighbor pressed charges. He missed his initial court hearing, which is when the bench warrant was issued.”
I drag my hand up and down her back, pressing into the tense muscles. “If — and it’s a big ‘if’ — he shows up here, I’ll be able to arrest him.”
Maisie’s quiet for a long time. Long enough that I pull back and look at her. “Say something, Sunshine.”
A wry chuckle barks out of her. “He’s not a cop anymore.” There’s so many emotions in the statement.
Relief.
Awe.
Sadness.
Peace.
“What’s going on in your head?”
She shakes her head. “So much. I’m relieved that he’s not a cop anymore. Now he can’t abuse that power to hurt anyone else. It’s a shock though, that someone on his team didn’t cover it up. And…” Her breath hitches. “Grief that I wasn’t as strong as someone else. That I didn’t call the cops, that I wasn’t strong enough or loud enough to make him stop hurting me until I had no choice but to run.”
“You’re wrong,” I say quietly between us. “You are strong. Strength comes in different forms. You found the courage to get out — to get away, to move forward with your life, to keep Audra safe. That’s strength.”
She nods, still distracted, processing the information.
“Who was it?” she asks.
“The neighbor he assaulted?”
She nods again.
“Wyatt Matthews was the complainant.”
A bark of laughter escapes her.
“What?” I ask, not sure what I’m missing.
“He couldn’t sweep that assault under the rug. Wyatt’s grandpa is the governor of Oklahoma. So his buddies on the police force couldn’t intimidate Wyatt into letting the whole thing go.” Her voice breaks on a shaky sob.
“Sunshine. Tell me what you need.” I hear the raw anguish in her voice, feel it in the way her breath hitches. And I can’t imagine how she feels.
“You,” she whispers. “I just need you.”
I cup her face in my palms and press an achingly soft kiss to her lips. “You’ve got me, Sunshine. You’ve always got me.”
Maisie leans up, her lips catching my own. She throws a leg over my midsection and straddles my lap. My fingers press into her hips, the soft cushion of her pressed against me more of an aphrodisiac than any drug on the market. “Enough about him. Enough about all of it. It’s over. It’s finally over.” The finality counters the relief in her tone, and I nod.
